It is a peculiar thing to encounter in the Irish midlands: the heraldic insignia of an English queen who reigned from 1558 to 1603, now quietly embedded in the masonry of a 19th-century country house complex.

The plaque sits at the northern end of the west range of buildings in the courtyard to the north-west of Castle Forbes, the Georgian and Victorian house that gives the demesne its name. How it came to be there is not entirely clear. Its original setting is unknown, but it is considered very likely to have been taken from a late medieval castle that once stood on or near the same ground. The practice of salvaging carved stonework from older structures and incorporating it into newer buildings was common enough, especially when the carved piece carried some prestige or decorative appeal. An armorial plaque bearing royal arms would have carried both. Whether it was placed here deliberately as a display of loyalty, or simply rescued from a collapsing wall and re-used, is a question the stonework itself cannot answer.